CARLSON: Spooky Stanley Hotel is hard to overlook

Walking into the bar of The Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colo., recently, I hollered “Heeeeere’s Johnny!” and all the drinkers began screaming.

All right, they didn’t actually begin screaming, because I didn’t actually holler “Heeeeeere’s Johnny!” like the maniacal Jack Nicholson character does while trying to hack apart his wife, Wendy, in “The Shining.”

I wasn’t even swinging an ax.

Still, years ago when horror writer Stephen King was stuck in The Stanley with only a couple of other people, that grand hotel’s ghosts and an endless supply of booze for company, he got the idea for his aforementioned novel set in the spooky Overlook Hotel.

The result? For imbibers who are fans of “The Shining,” be it the book and/or the movie, it’s impossible to walk into The Stanley’s bar and not start spewing lines of dialogue, like when the bartender walked over and innocently asked what I wanted.

“Redrum!” I screeched, hooking a pointer finger like little Danny does in the movie when he’s channeling his imaginary friend, Tony. “Redrum! Redrum!”

Anyway, The Stanley Hotel is proud of its connection to King and “The Shining,” which is sold in its gift shop.

It also offers 90-minute walking tours heavily centered on the ghosts who reside there, or so I’m told. Having a hip that generally limits my own walking tours to 90 seconds or less, I stayed in the bar, soaking up the atmosphere and a couple of other things.

Nevertheless, I can tell you that, unlike the fictional hotel, there is no maze such as the one in which a frozen Nicholson winds up looking like a Japanese snow monkey.

Also, while The Overlook appears to be located many miles from civilization, The Stanley is only about 300 yards from the nearest source of burritos, and maybe a half-mile from the nearest travel agency, something Wendy would have appreciated when crazy Jack was trying to whack her.

I can wholeheartedly recommend a visit to The Stanley, then, as a place where rivers of blood don’t cascade down the hallways, and the only killings are getting a great deal on a room.